The present invention relates to a business card portfolio and a second embodiment as a menu folder. More particularly, the present invention relates to a plastic and paperboard folder which may be proportioned to function as a business card carrier or a restaurant menu.
There has been a long-standing need in the advertising and trade show industries for a convenient inexpensive portfolio to carry business cards and the like collected at such shows. Yet, they must be of sufficient versatility so that any entrepreneur, restaurateur, or businessman can have the front and back covers of the folders embossed, decorated, or lithographed to his or her liking. There are constraints of weight, cost, and rigidity of existing card holders menus which cannot be easily carried, used, or arranged in the harried world of trade shows. Moreover, restaurant menus cannot easily adapt changing "food specials" at the need of restaurateurs.
In the past others have suggested numerous arrangements for carrying cards or other flat articles on one's person. For instance, an obvious choice might be to simply construct a completely rigid card carrying folder with double layers of plastic to form pockets to carry, for example, credit cards. In fact, other devices have used a more elaborate approach than the present invention ever requires. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,545,577 (Arms) discloses a pocket case with clear "windows" of "celluloid" sheets secured in a binding which is stitched to a cover on three sides, with one side open for the introduction of the card, photograph, sample, or other article.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,431,472 (Fistell) discloses a folding holder wherein transparent sheets may be stitched directly to the material of a back portion for insertion of the document between the sheets and the back portion. U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,874 (Carstensen) discloses a folding data case with transparent pockets, a first transparent sheet material being unattached on one side to provide entrances into the respective pockets. Carstensen also discloses extended seams formed by heat bonding portions of second sheets to the first sheet to form a plurality of pockets.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,774 (Siegel) discloses an album for photographic slides. It is made of pasteboard, with a first sheet containing cut-out portions, and a second thin flexible second sheet superimposed on the upper surface of the pasteboard. U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,148 (Miller)discloses a wallet formed from three panels of thin flexible material to provide two rows of pockets separated by a longitudinal fold line.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,372 (Young) discloses a portfolio with an a serial array of card-receiving pockets on a foldable panels. The card-receiving pockets open towards a central hinge line when a panel is folded away from the first cover of the portfolio. U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,875 (Martin) discloses a pocket secretary with a card carrying attachment made of a first sheet of transparent plastic material. This first sheet is heat welded to a second pair of transparent plastic sheets along three edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,983 (Givati) discloses a card holder in which the pockets are actually sleeves for holding cards in a back-to-back configuration. U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,574 (King) discloses a collector's album having transparent display pages. There are rectangular pockets to receive display items, each pocket generally having a planar transparent recessed base surface bounded by a peripheral retaining wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,208 (Tremmel Jr. et. al) discloses a notebook-type personal organizer. It contains at least one panel with an inside surface, and a pocket of flexible material formed on one of the inside surfaces of each panel.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,658 (Baumann) describes a method of construction of a cardholder with pockets. In this method a sheet of nylon/vinyl is interwoven through the slits in a second sheet to form the desired pockets. In a subsequent patent by Baumann (U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,308) he describes a method of pocket construction in which the card display pocket is formed of three sheets of fusible material.
My invention is a necessity for every exhibitor and visitor to large modern trade shows. The purpose of these shows is to bring exhibitors and their products or services to the attention of the visitors. Typically every exhibitor's booth has stacks of literature and samples which are intended to go home with the visitors. Many of the exhibitors give away shopping bags to help the visitors carry away their loot. The bags are adorned with memorable and attractive art work and commercial messages. However, the bags fill up quickly and seem to devour business cards consigned to them. Any visitor also likes to somehow keep the business cards attached to the distributed fliers and data sheets. As contemporaneous records of face-to-face meetings, the customers deserve better.
My invention is generally produced in two sizes: (1) a large size based on 11" by 17" card stock, creased and folded to enclose letter-sized data sheets,and up to 20 standard 3.5" by 2" business cards; and (2) a smaller portfolio based on 8.5" by 14" or 8.5" by 11" card stock, to display 12 or eight cards respectively, and enclose letter-sized pages and correspondence. The front and back covers are lithographed with any colors desired. The interior back and front covers have a plastic sheet attached with rows of pressure sensitive adhesive, and containing slots in that sheet which define pockets to accept cards. The pattern of adhesive is laid down by an offset process. Additional graphics may be offset to the inside covers before the adhesive pattern is applied. A similar construction is possible for a restaurant menu in which one or more pages, or leaves, carry such slots for removable cards which advertise special entrees.
As can be seen, none of the above devices are constructed by overlying a sheet of plastic material with adhesive stripes, thereby keeping use of additional expensive materials and elaborate strengthening devices to a minimum. These earlier devices totally fail to supply a lightweight, convenient method of carrying a multitude of business cards. They also lack an extremely simple exterior means attached to a folder for holding other advertizing materials, as demonstrated in the preferred embodiment of my invention.